Auction (Part 1)

A three-meter-tall holographic image suddenly appeared on the circular platform in the center of the room.

It was a human with cyan scaled skin, six ears, and four eyes on his head. He wore a blood-red battle armor covered in faint, mysterious patterns, with sharp spikes protruding from his shoulders, elbows, and knees, giving him a ferocious and bloodthirsty appearance.

This was a powerhouse of the Seba Race from the Xuanyi Universe Kingdom. It was impossible to tell his level—after all, it was just a holographic projection—but he was likely no lower than the Immortal level.

The Seba powerhouse bowed toward the front and spoke: "Respected guests, I, Qika, will be hosting this medium-scale auction for the Xuanyi Universe Kingdom. This auction has been in preparation for three thousand years, featuring a total of items. I hope every respected guest will be able to bid on the items they desire."

After finishing, Qika smiled, opened his arms, and said in a slightly excited tone: "Without further ado, let us proceed directly to our warm-up auction."

"These are ten Green Ancestor Hearts. They can increase the chance of a peak World Lord level metal lifeform evolving into an Immortal by 3%. If you want your spaceship to be even more powerful, don't miss out on this!"

"The starting price is 3000 Hunyuan, with a minimum increment of 100 Hunyuan. Please enter your bid in the bidding area beside you. The auction begins now!"

As soon as he finished speaking, a floating screen appeared in front of Luo Zhiyuan, displaying detailed information about the auction item and a bidding column. Luo Zhiyuan reached out and tapped on the details, causing an enlarged Green Ancestor Heart to appear on the circular platform in the room. It was about 10 meters in diameter, with floating text descriptions beside it.

It was a green, dodecahedron-like object. Each face had some irregular protrusions, and green light flowed between adjacent faces. At first glance, it even gave off a sense of rhythmic life.

There was a lot of floating text, the gist of which was that while the difficulty of advancing to the Immortal level varies for different metal lifeforms, using these ten Green Ancestor Hearts would increase the success rate by 3% for any of them. For a metal lifeform, this was a significant margin. There were also some precautions for use and other details.

While Luo Zhiyuan was checking the details, the bidding had already begun. It quickly rose from 3000 Hunyuan to 5000, then 6000, 6800, 7000... until it hit 9000, 9200, and 9500. The increments slowed down, finally stopping at 9800 Hunyuan.

"9800 Hunyuan, counting down 3 seconds. 3, 2, 1, sold! Congratulations to this guest. I wish your metal lifeform a successful promotion to Immortal, granting you a powerful assistant!" Qika announced loudly.

Qika then raised his right arm and said excitedly: "Next, our auction officially begins! Here is the first batch of auction items, totaling 100 pieces. Please pay attention, guests; if you see something you like, please prepare to bid."

After a pause of about 5 seconds, Qika began to introduce them rapidly: "The first item is the Nine Great Divine Weapons of the Controller set, containing all nine types of Controller divine weapons. That's right, even the rarest Universe Bead, which fuses the laws of time and space, is included!"

"There are 12 sets in this auction. The starting price is 100 Hunyuan, with a minimum increment of 10 Hunyuan. The 12 highest bidders will win these Nine Great Divine Weapons of the Controller sets. The auction begins now!"

Luo Zhiyuan hadn't expected the first item in the first batch to be the Nine Great Divine Weapons of the Controller set he had his eye on. He was stunned for a moment before he heard Bulieni shouting: "Luo, you brat! Why are you spacing out? The bidding has already started, why aren't you bidding yet?"

Snapping back to reality, Luo Zhiyuan quickly scanned the floating screen. The price had already reached 210 Hunyuan. He hurriedly entered 300 Hunyuan in the bidding column, only to be quickly overtaken by 330, 350, 380...

Luo Zhiyuan gritted his teeth and entered 500 Hunyuan directly. He then noticed that this price remained unchallenged until Qika announced loudly: "The auction is over. Congratulations to the 12 guests who successfully bid on this set of weapons. I wish your World Lord warriors a great increase in strength!"

At this moment, a notification appeared on the screen in front of Luo Zhiyuan: "Congratulations, customer number XXX, you have successfully bid on one set of the Nine Great Divine Weapons of the Controller, item number XXX. Please send your delivery address to the Virtual Universe system within 1 day after the auction ends. We will provide free delivery service and inform you of the exact arrival time. Please be ready to receive it on time."

Only after hearing Qika's words did Luo Zhiyuan realize that the customers buying these sets were likely Immortal powerhouses purchasing them for their own World Lord subordinates. There probably wasn't another person like him buying them for himself, but it didn't matter; as long as he got them, it was fine.

In fact, Luo Zhiyuan had an immature idea, but he hadn't told Bulieni yet. He didn't know if Bulieni would support or reject this idea, as it would certainly require a lot of time.

He currently had insights into the origin laws of light and time, and with the Beast God Avatar left to him by his teacher, comprehending these two major origin laws would certainly not be a problem.

However, Luo Zhiyuan also wanted to try to comprehend the law of space, as teleportation was a very good life-saving ability.

Luo Zhiyuan had big ambitions and many ideas right now. Since Bulieni told him that his lifespan was more than ten times that of an ordinary human, he could stay at the World Lord level for a very long time. During the World Lord stage, which was the fastest phase for comprehending laws, he could comprehend as many universe laws as possible and build a solid foundation.

If he could successfully comprehend the law of space, he would have more options after advancing to the Immortal level. He wouldn't be limited to his teacher's path of fused laws and would likely be able to walk the path of time and space laws.

Therefore, besides the Shadow Divine Weapon, he might use other divine weapons from the nine, such as the five divine weapons belonging to the space law system. Even the ninth divine weapon, the Universe Bead, wasn't out of reach. Buying this set was definitely not a loss!

The auction continued, and many items Luo Zhiyuan had never heard of appeared one after another. He only clicked to view them out of curiosity and didn't continue buying until Qika began to introduce:

"Next is the last item of the eighth batch, a Machine Race E9-class spaceship. It features high maneuverability, excellent defensive performance, and self-repair capabilities. It can be considered a top-tier configuration among E-class spaceships."

"The starting price is 1000 Hunyuan, with a minimum increment of 100 Hunyuan. Please enter your bid in the bidding area beside you. The auction begins now!"

Bulieni jumped off Luo Zhiyuan's shoulder instantly and shouted: "Luo, you brat! Hurry up and check the detailed information. The catalog only has a simple introduction. I want to see the pros and cons of the spaceship I'm about to take over! Hurry!"

Luo Zhiyuan immediately operated the floating screen in front of him and tapped on the details. A miniature white, pyramid-shaped Machine Race spaceship appeared on the circular platform, about 90 meters high, with a large amount of text floating beside it. Bulieni also carefully examined the detailed introduction.

According to the text, this was a spaceship captured from a Machine Race Immortal powerhouse on the outer battlefield, 1500 meters high with a pyramid structure.

The entire ship was made of E9-class self-repairing alloy. Over two-thirds of the interior space was occupied by the power system cabin, which greatly enhanced its instantaneous acceleration and various evasive maneuvers, making it comparable to an F9-class spaceship.

Furthermore, the ship's maximum speed could reach 15 times the speed of light, and it was equipped with an energy shield capable of resisting E9-class attacks, meaning attacks below the Immortal level could be completely ignored by this ship.

The ship itself was equipped with five Star-Destroying Cannons and 18 E5-class laser cannons. The Star-Destroying Cannons could unleash attacks comparable to the Immortal level, and the 18 E5-class laser cannons were distributed all over the ship, leaving no blind spots in its offensive capabilities.

The first drawback was that it was not equipped with a detector; the Machine Race detector was likely too expensive and had been removed, taken away, or resold.

The second was that the energy consumption was relatively high, as a large amount of energy was required to power the propulsion cabin.

The third was that the weakening effect on soul attacks was very weak, only reducing them by one-third, meaning that if an enemy launched a soul attack, this ship could not effectively reduce the power of the attack.

While Luo Zhiyuan was checking the details, the bidding had already begun. It quickly rose from 1000 Hunyuan to 2000, then the speed slowed down: 2500, 2800, 3100... until Luo Zhiyuan entered 3400 Hunyuan, and it stopped increasing.

"3400 Hunyuan, counting down 3 seconds. 3, 2, 1, sold! Congratulations to this guest. You have obtained a very good spaceship. I hope it will accompany you on your travels through the universe for a long time!" Qika announced loudly, then continued the auction.

Seeing that Luo Zhiyuan had won the Machine Race spaceship, Bulieni patted his shoulder excitedly and said: "Haha, I finally have a body! Luo, you brat, with me controlling this ship in the future, you don't have to worry about anyone below the Immortal level; I can handle them all for you. Even if an ordinary Immortal comes, I can still stall them for a while, haha!"

Looking at Bulieni's smug expression, Luo Zhiyuan laughed along with him.

"Next is the third item of the tenth batch, Luo Ke Divine Water. It contains a very high amount of 'Life Qi'. I won't go into detail about its specific uses; all you respected guests should know. It is sold in units of cubic meters, with twenty units in total. Each unit starts at 50 Hunyuan."

"Each increment must be at least 1 Hunyuan. The 20 highest bidders will win the Luo Ke Divine Water. Please enter your bid in the bidding area beside you. The auction begins now!"

Luo Zhiyuan was surprised to hear the name "Luo Ke Divine Water". Most of the previous auction items were things he had never heard of, but this "Luo Ke Divine Water" had left a deep impression on him in the original Swallowed Star novel, as it was the first particularly huge fortune Luo Feng had accidentally obtained.

Afraid he had misheard, Luo Zhiyuan hurriedly clicked on the detailed introduction. A liquid that constantly emitted cold air appeared on the circular platform. The text beside it explained the origin and function of this "Luo Ke Divine Water".

This was a magical item named after "Luo Ke", a super-existence among humans from shortly after the birth of the universe. Luo Ke had accidentally discovered the "Luo Ke Divine Water" in a universe secret realm and found that it possessed astonishing life force, which could be used to cultivate plant lifeforms and heal the body.

Sure enough, it was the "Luo Ke Divine Water" that appeared in the original work!

Overjoyed, Luo Zhiyuan immediately thought of a question: his teacher had prepared Star-Eating Grass for him, but were there any treasures to cultivate it? If not, he would have to buy this "Luo Ke Divine Water".

"Bulieni, did my teacher prepare resources for cultivating the Star-Eating Grass for me? If not, this Luo Ke Divine Water is a good treasure. Should we buy it?"

Bulieni was still immersed in his excitement. Hearing Luo Zhiyuan's question, he said dismissively, "Luo Ke Divine Water? We don't need that junk. We can easily cultivate the Star-Eating Grass to the perfect World Lord peak using just the Secret Realm Spirit Marrow. We've even prepared the items needed for it to break through to the Immortal level."

"Besides, using Secret Realm Spirit Marrow for cultivation has a huge benefit for plant life. With the soul enhancement provided by the Secret Realm Spirit Marrow, the chances of plant life advancing to the Immortal level increase significantly—at least by 10%!"

Hearing that he didn't need to buy it, Luo Zhiyuan felt relieved. However, on second thought, he figured buying one unit as a souvenir wouldn't hurt. Since he didn't care about such "small change" given his current savings, he spent 93 Hunyuan to bid on one unit of Luo Ke Divine Water.

After explaining to Bulieni that it was just a souvenir, he was actually teased by Bulieni for a while, leaving Luo Zhiyuan speechless.

After another while, an item Luo Zhiyuan recognized appeared again: Purple Star Fruit. It was used to cultivate Immortal-level plant life and could help those below the World Lord level break through their cultivation bottlenecks. The starting bid was 80 Hunyuan per unit, with 20 Purple Star Fruits per unit.

Seeing this, Bulieni shouted, "This is good! Buy it, kid, buy it all! The Old Mystic keeps them as snacks, so they must taste great. You should buy plenty so you can eat them to satisfy your cravings later!"

Luo Zhiyuan's eyes lit up as he said, "That makes sense! I've always wanted to taste them. Now I have the chance, and they can even help with cultivation breakthroughs—it's the best of both worlds!"

Bulieni looked at Luo Zhiyuan as if he were an idiot. "What do you need to break through with these? Didn't I tell you? Your bloodline is of the highest tier and can grow smoothly to the World Lord level. To you, this stuff is nothing more than a snack."

"Of course, although this stuff isn't very expensive, it takes one era for a single fruit to ripen. You're lucky this time; next time you want to eat them, you might not be able to buy any!"

"If it weren't for the fact that you're always complaining about this not tasting good or that being average, I wouldn't even bother mentioning this stuff. Hurry up and bid, or you won't be able to buy them if you're too slow!"

Seeing Bulieni urging him on, Luo Zhiyuan eventually bought fifteen units, totaling 300 Purple Star Fruits, at prices ranging from 230 to 170 Hunyuan.

After that, Luo Zhiyuan added a new item to his watchlist: various edible materials. Whenever he saw any, he would bid on a portion, waiting to taste them.

PS: Brothers, I'm a bit late, but the word count for this chapter has returned to the amount I had when I first started writing the book. Please don't mind it.

Today we achieved our second honor, and I am truly very happy. I hadn't expected this; I thought it would take another week. Thank you!

"Gaining an inch and wanting a mile"—that describes me perfectly, hehe. Brothers, I wonder when we'll reach one thousand favorites?

I want both favorites and recommendation tickets~ Gentlemen, thank you!